During his radio show Monday night, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney confirmed that transfer defensive tackle Kourtney Kelly remains in line to make his season debut in Saturday’s game vs. Charleston Southern.

The West Georgia transfer has been recovering from a torn ACL suffered during a scrimmage in spring practice.

“We anticipate getting him back this week,” Swinney said. “So, I’m super excited about that. He was a guy that was on his way to really probably being a starter for us coming out of where he was in spring. … We’re very hopeful that he’s going to be able to play some this week. He’s practicing well, and he’s doing good. We’ve been kind of shooting for this timeline to get him back. That’d be a big shot in the arm for us.”

Coming off the open date last weekend, the Tigers welcome Charleston Southern to Memorial Stadium on Saturday, with kickoff set for noon on ACC Network.

Kelly was one of many transfer portal acquisitions for Clemson on the defensive side of the ball this past offseason. The 6-foot-3, 290-pound junior spent his first two college seasons at West Georgia, where he was credited with 17 tackles (seven for loss), four sacks and a fumble recovery in 11 games in 2025 after appearing in one game while redshirting in 2024.